On Monday morning, Jerry Rice told 95.7 The Game listeners that he can't envision Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers wanting to play for the San Francisco 49ers.
"Aaron is not going to want to come here," Rice said. "He doesn't want to come here because the 49ers didn't draft him. He's still got that grudge. He's still got that on his shoulders."
Mike Silver of NFL Media wrote an intriguing piece for NFL.com, analyzing the discontent that may be brewing in Green Bay between Rodgers and the Packers. After his second consecutive loss in the NFC Championship Game, the somber-sounding quarterback seemed unsure about his NFL future, and whether that included a return to the Packers.
"[There are] a lot of guys' futures that are uncertain," Rodgers said via Silver, "myself included. That's what's sad about it most ... getting this far. Obviously, there's going to be an end to it at some point, whether we make it past this one or not. Just the uncertainties, (it) is tough, and the finality of it."
Silver felt that Rodgers' words could be viewed like this, as a message to the Packers: Your way of doing business has to change, or maybe I should be on my way.
The NFL analyst, who also joined 95.7 The Game on Monday, doesn't necessarily agree with Rice's perception of Rodgers' attitude toward the 49ers — the team he grew up cheering and hoped would draft him in 2005.
"I don't think he's going to play for Mike Nolan (any time soon)," Silver quipped during the Steiny, Guru & Dibs show, "... Do you blame Jed York for the decision to take Alex Smith, who by the way, Aaron Rodgers would agree is a great dude, and we all love, right? No, I think if you're Aaron Rodgers, if you can't play for the Packers -- I think he wants to play for the Packers, who are less passive.
"If you can't play for the Packers because all they care about is sitting on their hands in free agency and waiting to see who falls to them in the draft — unless they can trade up to take your successor, by the way — then I think you want to go play for a killer who will get the absolute most out of your ability, and load up to try to win.
"Do you think Kyle Shanahan and that organization fits that bill? I do. It's the same offense he's running that he's about to win MVP with, with Matt LaFleur. They absolutely will spend money and be aggressive, and Kyle probably, with Aaron Rodgers, could be the scariest thing some of us have ever seen, in a lot of people's opinions.
"So, yeah, if I'm Aaron Rodgers and I decide I don't want to play for the Packers, I want to go play for a killer whose owner wants to spend around me. It seems like the Niners should be on that list."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Silver below.
